Hey Rambler fans,

I was just wondering what you guys think about MVC so far? What have you liked about this conference comapred to the HL? Then also what do you think about the teams? It's pretty much like this:
Shockers

Sycamores (Although I think they can beat WSU in the MVC tourney.)

Everybody else.

Compared to what ?? Just funnin' ya !!

This is a very good league--I compare it favorably to the Atlantic How many ?? You know the one with St Joe, St Louis et al. I say this comparing on a yerar to year basis not just now. Cannot go by the publicity as they are mostly East and we are not.
If all goes well, and we start piling up wins--We can do this--Then it will be better for the MVC--We appear to be the key here. I like our chances. BUT we must WIN--CC is all well and good, but WIN and all else will fall in line. From what I read, our other teams at LUC are doin; pretty well--All appear to be competitive.

I am completely in the Shockers' corner for now. Sycamores have slim chance to whip them--They are just too good now--In future ?/ Heck no. It changes.
I look for ISUr , No Iowa, LUC and of course WSU to be the best of a good Conference--I do think Ill St is an intriguing team with a fine coach--so loopk out for them.
The rest will be also-rans over the NEAR future.

One thing to watch--while Porter is recruiting well, the other guys are doing the same--for sure.

A tad off the subject--Creighton is doing well NOW , but watch them start to fade next season or so and fall to Butler, DePewl status--in that League.

It's a bigger change for Loyola than I thought it would be coming into this league after the Horizon. I had been living half in Chicago and half in Normal for the past several years, so I didn't see the landscape as alien as a lot of fans apparently did at first. Some of the teams in the MVC we were somewhat familiar with-- Bradley and Evansville especially-- but as a fanbase we're still forming our conception of what some of these schools are about, their personalities and traits. We'd only played Missouri State and Southern Illinois a combined three times ever before, and not at all in the past 33 years. Our last game against Wichita State before two weeks ago was in 1989.

I was really happy with the ISU crowd at yesterday's game. I guess they've been the most enthusiastic of any school so far about us being in the league. Part of that may stem from the fact that Bloomington-Normal probably has the least loathing/best knowledge about Chicago as a city-- some might be the familiarity with Moser. I'd estimate probably 65-70% of ISU students are from Chicago and the suburbs.

We also had some setbacks in adjusting-- unusually bad weather, the disintegration of our marketing/attendance contractor, and a crappy non-con schedule in which we didn't distinguish ourselves very well. But with decent wins over Missouri State, UNI, ISU, and Drake, and playing very competitively against ISUb and Wichita State, I think a lot of opposing teams are starting to look at us more now as a competitor and less as "the new guys who don't really belong." You can tell that the rest of the league is impressed with Milton Doyle, and that's helped speed along the process of fitting in.

As for the league race, it looks pretty sure like we're going to be playing Thursday in St. Louis, barring some unexpected wins and a collapse from one or more of the four teams tied for third. My hope would be that we could maybe win our Thursday game at Arch Madness so we'll have that experience out of the way for next year and beyond.

One of my favorite things so far is how opposing fans react on their message boards when we beat them. There have been some great meltdowns.

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Ahunte .... it is great laughs, especially when they go nuclear on each other!!

I wish swella were on some of their boards to egg them on

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Nuclear-Smoocklear !! These MVC teams had better get used to it--We are Jelling AND getting over new Conf shock. I say we will be winning regularly about five -six games into Conf next season. These teams are beating us now--BUT that will cease soon as I say--We are gettin' good. Plus we are getting the feel of things. We have NOW more than one or two players--Our bench is growing--One can see this. I predict teams will NOT want to come to the friendly shores of Lake Michigan --BOOK IKT !!

If only you guys did better in the non con portion. That's the only thing that everyone hates more than anything.

We were all disappointed with not only the performance, but also the quality of the non-conference schedule. I trust that the non con schedule will be improved next year and I expect the results to improve as well.